12/29/2009

Once again President Obama has project weakness to our enemies in the aftermath of the terrorist attack against Northwest Flight 253. First, on national television, his hapless Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, claimed that the airline security system / anti-terror program worked. This was clearly false on its face. If not for a failure in the system of catastrophic proportion, how else could an Islamist like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was known to US Intelligence because his own father ratted him out, be allowed to board a flight to the United States with a valid US visa. Napolitano is the same genius who coined the phrase “man made disasters” and expected us to use that in lieu of “terrorist attack” (to me, a man made disaster is something like the bridge collapse in Minnesota several years ago). She was also the one who illuminated us as to the dangers of US soldiers returning from war, they might become right wing militia members. Does this woman install confidence in anyone? If so, I haven't met him. The President should immediately fire Secretary Napolitano for incompetence.

Next, and not surprisingly, Mr. Abdulmutallab was arrested by the FBI and read his Miranda warnings. The Obama Administration has decided to treat this unlawful enemy combatant as a common criminal. He now has all of the same rights that Martha Stewart had upon her arrest. Evidently, those in change of our national security believe that the perpetrator of his incident has no valuable intelligence which could help prevent future attacks. For if they did, he would be remanded to the custody of the US Military or the CIA for interrogation. He would not be given the opportunity to lawyer up like an insider trader. Remember, it was a law enforcement approach to terrorism that allowed the 9/11 attacks to happen.

Then, in the President’s first public remarks on the attack, he referred to Mr. Abdulmutallab as an “isolated extremist”. The facts belie this. Two former Guantanamo Bay detainees were involved in the Christmas Day plot. Also, ABC News has reported that Mr. Abdulmutallab spent months in Yemen receiving explosive and terrorist training with other members of al-Qaida in Arabia. He was also in contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, the same al-Qaida leader who was in contact with Maj. Nidal Hasan. And, al-Qaida itself has issued numerous statements since Christmas Day that more attacks are forthcoming. How is it possible that the Commander-in-Chief believes that al-Qaida is made up of just a few “isolated extremist”? Logic and common sense tell us otherwise. Those on the left often tell us that there are just too many terrorists to kill and that we have to win their hearts and minds. If there were just a few isolated extremists, why couldn't we just kill or arrest them all? Why worry about winning the hearts and minds of just those few?

In addition, the President never once mentioned the fact that Abdulmutallab is a radical Muslim. In fact, Mr. Obama only mentioned Islam once during his speech and that was when he referred to Iran by its full name, “The Islamic Republic of Iran”. For some reason, President Obama wants us all to believe that Islam plays no part in the actions of those who perpetrate terrorist attacks in the name of Allah. He does not understand the nature of the threat that these people pose to Western Civilization and, as such, he is unprepared to protect the American people from them.

Based upon the actions (or inactions) of the President of the United States, our enemies now perceive America as weak. This emboldens them and terrorist acts will become more frequent and more deadly. Had the President responded boldly to this attack, he could have shown the Islamist that he means business. Instead, we are told not to use blankets or go to the bathroom during the last hour of an international flight. (Why can’t a terrorist blow up the plane with two hours left in the flight?)

When President Obama declared that there is no War on Terror, the Islamic extremists who wish to kill Americans and Jews failed to receive the memo. They continue to do everything they can to perpetrate as many attacks as possible in an effort to achieve their objectives – restoration of the caliphate and death to the infidels. And, while they are doing that, we have a President who refuses to take the enemy at their word. Unfortunately, next time, the results could be far worse than third degree burns on the genitals of an Islamist extremist.

12/28/2009

After the near bombing over Detroit, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano claimed the anti-terror system is working, then reworked her statement to mean the system to alert other airports and airlines worked, not the part that keeps known bad guys with explosives off planes in the first place.

Her first statement was slightly off-the-cuff, a mistake any of us in a high pressure position are prone to make. No harm, no foul. For those of us who criticize the Obama Administration for being relentlessly programmed, let's not hyperventilate when it's not so programmed.

Let's also acknowledge that a system that lets through one or two bad guys every once in a great while is inevitable. A few tuna are going to escape the tuna net. Likewise, a few dolphins are going to get caught in the tuna net. Which means the next time a very innocent person who looks like, is named like, or has a background like someone who shouldn't be on a plane isn't let on a plane, let's extend the same deference to those officials overseeing that process.

Now, for my Democratic friends reading this, nodding their heads and saying "That Daily Pander is such a reasonable guy" I ask: Are you willing to commit yourself here and now to this same view when the exact same thing happens under a Republican watch?

12/22/2009

Congrats to the these attorneys general for taking their constitutional roles seriously. Of course they are politically motivated, but an order of magnitude less than the Dems who are bribing their way to passing a health care bill that doubles down on everything wrong with health insurance and, with straight faces, congratulate themselves in the process.

And of course, check out the quote towards the end of the story from Rep. Clyburn who thinks the problem with political bribes isn't that they're too big, but that they're too small.